Mayor Orders Maui Jail ClosedUnfit For Animal Life

The Maui County jail will be permanently closed, Mayor Elmer Cravalho announced last week.

"The County jail is not fit to be utilized or inhabited by any form of animal life", Cravalho said of the 30-year-old wooded structure in Wailuku.

He said conditions at the jail, which offers no rehabilitation, recreation or work programs, "are not conducive to any kind of rehabilation."

Cravalho said the 13 men now held at the jail and all subsequent prisoners will be sent to the State's Olinda Honor Camp in East Maui.

Cravalho said that before announcing the closing of the facility, he discussed the idea with Hawaii Gov. John Burns, Circuit Judge S. George Fukuoka, Police Chief Abraham Aiona and members of the Police Commission and County Council.

Closing of the jail will permit several policemen assigned to the facility to be released for other duties.